Advanced telephone systems may be used, for example, to provide configurable, convenient, and cost-effective telephone usage to a group of users. For example, a private branch exchange (PBX) may be used at a building or other site that is associated with a particular group of users. For instance, a business in an office building may employ a PBX for the benefit of the employees and owners of the business. In some cases, advanced telephone systems may be implemented using a computer network, e.g., a local area network of the business.
Advanced telephone systems may provide a number of advantageous features to employees and owner(s) of a business. For example, the employees may be provided with telephone features including voice mail, call conferencing, or call transfer/forwarding between employees. Owners of the business may experience cost savings by associating multiple telephones with one external telephone line (i.e., an external telephone line of a telephone service provider), so that fees associated with the external line(s) may be reduced in comparison to a configuration in which each telephone is provided with an associated external telephone line.
Further, the owner may be provided with a variety of features that may increase customer satisfaction or employee productivity. For example, customer satisfaction may be improved by using automatic answering features for receiving customer calls, and employee productivity may be improved by providing employees with useful information (e.g., including office closure announcements or other business-wide announcements). Additionally, such advanced telephone systems may allow the owner of the business to monitor and track phone usage of employees of the business, or of the business as a whole.
Administration of such telephone systems, however, has traditionally been complex and problematic, and has required advanced knowledge for setup, configuration, and maintenance thereof. As a result, if a customer (e.g., a small business, home-based business, or high-end home) purchases a conventional telephone system, the customer typically hires an outside firm or other contractor or employee to perform the majority of the installation work. Furthermore, when a change is required in such settings (sometimes, for example, a change as small as adjusting the time twice a year for daylight savings), the outside firm typically is hired again to make the change. As a result, the customer incurs the costs associated with hiring the outside firm (potentially adding substantial cost to the purchase price and total cost of ownership for a conventional phone system). Additionally the customer may experience delays and inconveniences when changes are required, since (even for minor changes), an appointment is scheduled with the outside firm. Still further, the customer may be frustrated with the inability to self-administer a conventional telephone system. In short, conventional telephone systems are not designed to be installed or maintained by people who have not trained to be telephone system experts.